a queen's plague
by Aiko Isari
Summary: Taichi returns home on the search for the eighth child and finds a young man at his house. Hikari chooses to wait and watch, again. Then a new fate arrives in the form of a sweet orange cat. But that cat is a little more than sweet, and the weight of this destiny might just ruin its wielder. Roleswap AU.


Prologue

Taichi was eleven years old, and he had to save the world.

Well, he didn't have to do it alone, but all of his friends trusted him to find the way to save them all and that was enough for him to be completely out of his mind with fear on the inside. The others were going to help. They were going to be amazing and heroes.

But they needed one more to make this journey complete. They needed the Eighth Child.

His first instinct, though of course, he tried to tamp down on it, was to suspect Hikari. Hikari, who had known Koromon by sight, who had known so much about the Digital World and kept it quiet. Who had lied and gotten sick on just the perfect day?

He couldn't remember all of it, but he could somehow clearly see her climbing onto a giant Agumon's back and disappearing into the city. The thought of it almost made him stop walking in the middle of the street until a car honked and he jumped forward.

"Hikari-chan's going to be happy to see us, huh?"

Taichi shushed him with his hand, trying not to grin. That was true. Hikari and Koromon had gotten along like a barn on fire. She had cared for him almost like he himself tended to look after her. Good times, he figured. ANd he had had to rip that away from her. A part of him was guilty about that.

But, at least everyone else was home now! And, better than that, after they found the eighth child and took care of things, they'd get to stay home too! The grin on his face widened.

Maybe, just maybe, Agumon could stay around too. That way, if she wasn't the Eighth Child, Hikari would have someone to look after!

Besides, he'd totally miss the guy.

"Taichi!"

Taichi squinted down at the pink blob. "What?"

"The light's green." Koromon chirped back in a whisper, ignored by the passerby around them.

Taichi blushed red to his ears. "Oh. Thanks."

* * *

The door to his apartment, when he reached it, was unlocked. Taichi tensed up a little. Hikari would never leave it unlocked while she was sleeping. Their neighborhood was safe but not that safe. "Maybe our parents beat us here." He hadn't seen their car in the communal lot though… He gripped his Digivice. "Be ready, Koromon."

"Okay, Taichi." His partner's self-assured whisper made him relax, just a little. Then, he pushed open the door.

"I'm home," he shouted into the entrance. It was probably unnecessarily loud but he had to hope that if there was an intruder in here and they were after his sister that they just got vitally distracted enough not to hurt her.

"Nii-chan!"

Hikari, face a little flushed from fever, stumbled over to him. Guilt squeezed his heart. He had _left her_ alone on that block, what kind of brother was he? He swallowed that thought and hugged her tight. "Hey!" he said quieter now. "Look who's here." Koromon moved happily from under his arm and into Hikari's chest, letting him hug his sister with both arms. "How are you feeling?"

She smiled up at him. "Great! Nishijima-san walked me home! He showed me how to make a compress!"

Everything in Taichi froze. Then his hackles rose. "Hikari," he began, voice starting to stern. "You know not to let strangers into-"

"He's not a stranger," Hikari interrupted, her red eyes gleaming with the joy of revealing a secret. "He's like you."

This, unfortunately, did not pacify Taichi in the slightest. "Hikari," he began. She usually was the one who got him out of trouble like this, being unfortunately conscientious of the way people looked at small vulnerable people and running from it. "That doesn't mean-"

"I tried to tell her the same thing," said a quiet voice from the direction of the living room. "But she insisted on bringing me home to talk to you." A young man with black hair stepped into view, a suit and tie dangling messily on his limbs. What, had he never worn a suit before? Or had he taken it off before to-

All of Taichi's numerous questions were ground to a halt as the older male lifted something up for him to see.

"A Digivice... he choked out, struggling to put into words just how messed up this all was. "Are you the eighth child?"

The teen blinked. Then he shook his head. "No idea what that's about. I'm too old to be a kid. But I was like you, once." He swallowed and dipped his head. "My name is Nishijima Daigo and I'm here on behalf of Homeostasis, as well as other interested parties. I may be able to help with this eighth child issue you're talking about. If I may, I'd like to talk to all of you in person."

Taichi nodded, throat dry. He flew towards the phone. Hikari, however, went right back to Daigo and spoke quietly, eagerly, about something else Taichi couldn't quite decipher. Remembering her calm response to Koromon days, weeks, hours before made his stomach tighten.

* * *

The Yagami parents had likely not expected to see more than their two kids and their strange stuffed animals, along with a university student they had never seen before, And yet that was exactly what they had walked into. A few pizza boxes were neatly stacked on the floor and Taichi sat with Hikari in his lap, brushing her hair neatly into clips as she sipped miso soup from a mug. The student hopped to his feet and bowed in greeting, speaking quickly and smiling in a clumsy sort of way.

He seemed harmless. Yuuko and Susumu glanced at one another and in unison, towards Taichi. Yuuko waited for the customary wilt from disapproval but instead, as if bolstered, her son looked as puzzled as they felt. He looked puzzled, but resigned, as if he'd been here just long enough to accept that this was going to happen whether he wanted it to or not, but wasn't entirely sure what that 'something' was.

"Great timing," Nishijima Daigo said after a moment of looking them over. "We're only missing two people. I'm going to assume you all know nothing of what's going on, correct?"

"Not at all." Susumu sat down and he could feel the many kids staring at him and his wife, looking for how that poof of messy hair was even remotely related to him. He couldn't blame them, even if his mind was on other things. "As far as we knew-"

"Taichi was supposed to be at camp," Yuuko finished, tucking her hair behind her ear and going over to the two of them. She gave Taichi a once over and a fever check, then Hikari herself. When her hand lingered for a second too long, for some reason, however, Hikari leaned back into her brother, a somewhat surly expression forming on her face. It was only for an instant. Then she smiled.

"I'm okay," she said then. "Nii-chan just checked."

Yuuko seemed to relax at that and settled down. Then, only then, did Taichi turn to everyone else.

"Are... are we okay with telling them about this?"

The older blond boy shrugged. "I won't have to."

"I don't want to," said the girl in the pink hat. The redhead didn't even look up from his computer, nodding along.

"I'm gonna tell," chirped the smaller blonde boy.

Sora nodded absently like she wasn't really sure what she was agreeing to. The last boy only grunted.

"I'm not saying a word. My brothers wouldn't be able to lie fast enough to cover me."

"Great," Taichi finished with a low, hangdog look. "Guess we gotta hope the Yagamis are the cool parents-ow." Hikari had firmly planted her small, bony elbow into his ribs. "Hikari, you're supposed to be sick." She only peered up at him with innocent, wide-eyed wonder. Sora laughed, the sound a bit shrill from how unexpected it was.

Both parents looked at each other. "Taichi, what is thi-" Susumu couldn't even finish his question before there was a knock at the door. It was very self-assured too by the sound of the quick, firm raps. Daigo, for whatever reason, laughed and went to open it.

"Honestly, Hime-chan, what if you had gotten it wrong?" he asked, looking whoever it was up and down.

"Well, obviously, I'd blame you," replied the other, voice a touch rough and firm. Yuuko tried not to raise an eyebrow. The young woman gave him a look as he tucked a piece of hair out of her face. It was a look that Yuuko and Susumu had often shared in front of their children. The young woman glanced at the motley group assembled in the room and bowed.

"This is Himekawa Maki," Daigo introduced before looking behind her legs. "And behind her is Mochizuki Meiko. Hime-Himekawa-san is my coworker and she helped me with a similar issue to what these kids will be facing now."

"Which is?" Susumu's voice made low simmering irritation into an art form. The young woman arched an eyebrow, apparently impressed. "We're still very confused about that."

Hence why all ideas of manners were clearly being forgone.

"Ah, that." Himekawa led the girl into the room, watching her peek out through red-rimmed glasses and raven feather dark bangs to view everyone in the room. "There are parallel worlds, Yagami-san, and your son has been to one of them."

"... What?"

Because what else could you say, really? What other way did you answer such a blunt, beautiful statement?

"Snow in August isn't normal," the woman continued, ushering the other girl from past her knees in slow gestures, not really seeming to care about the way her fingernails were digging into the pencil skirt or the way the adult's eyes were positively widening. "Snow in Japan isn't common. Floods in Chicago from the Great Lakes, mudslides in the Alps, forest fires in England's countryside... that's not normal."

"It could be global warming," Susumu suggested, trying to sound like the calm, reasonable, rational adult in the situation.

"That's for the current hole in the sky," Daigo supplied as he led Maki and the other girl to where he had been previously sitting. The younger one obediently sat, while Maki only raised an eyebrow before doing the same, seeing as Meiko had not let go the entire time. "And global warming is gradual... usually. Still, that's not it, is it Hikari-chan?"

Hikari blinked, feeling everyone's eyes on her. She shifted back in her brother's lap, something chilly and sad burning up her features.

Slowly, sweat making her face shine, she nodded.

* * *

By the time the meeting ended, a group of silent children left the small apartment in clumps. Taichi watched his father pile people into cars and fumble train money from his wallet. In the background, like an off-key melody, he heard his mother chopping up food for dinner. It seems more to be occupying her hands. He can imagine her face, shell-shocked and awful.

" _Digital Monsters are in fact monsters, but so are humans, and humans don't understand what they're dealing with yet. That's why children are asked. Adults will believe they're having a tantrum or a breakdown, or that they're lying for attention. Even good parents will make that mistake once in a while. And thus, if they're careful, the world is kept secret from those who would intentionally misuse it. But that won't be the case this time. The force from before is moving, and they're moving way too quickly and reaching their claws into our world beforehand rather than waiting until the end."_

The other two, who were apparently college students, were still in his house, watching Hikari and the other girl Meiko, as well as Takeru, whose mother had called and said she would come pick them up. For whatever reason, that caused Yamato to bolt out of the apartment as fast as he could, barely giving Takeru a goodbye.

They would have to talk about that later.

" _The fact of the matter is, your children, all these children, will have to choose to fight. You can decide for them, or you can let them decide. The choice is what makes them chosen." Maki rolled up her sleeve and revealed a long, singular mark down her arm, over veins and arteries. "It is our actions, our choices that define everything for that person, the god."_

" _There's a god." Yagami Susumu's voice had gone strangely flat._

" _She is something like one." Daigo had corrected. "She communicated with Hime-chan very few times. She never told us where to go, or what to do. She left the choice in our hands. That is all she can do, create the conditions and leave us to decipher our way through and out of them. Is that not what parents do for children?"_

For now, Taichi made himself turn back to the living room, palms clammy. Koromon had taken up residence in Hikari's lap, where he was right at home. It was almost nostalgic. If only he could remember it properly. Then he could talk about it with her.

As soon as he thought about that, he saw Meiko nervously start to move away from Maki, and towards Hikari. She hadn't spoken during the entire long talk, where the two young adults had come out to his parents about the Digital World, what it meant, what they had done, and what he and his friends would have to do one day. To a point, he was observant enough these days to notice the way Himekawa Maki would shut her mouth like a steel trap when it suited, or when she was biting into her lip so hard it bled instead. There was something in that, and Taichi, thinking of Sora falling into an abyss, wasn't sure he wanted to confront it.

Hikari looked up at Meiko and smiled. "Are you okay?"

Meiko looked at her curiously. "Are you?"

"Mm!" Taichi throbbed on the inside at the complete lie that was. "I just got a cold, I get sick easily." Hikari patted the floor next to her. "Want to hold Koromon?"

Meiko's eyes sparkled and Takeru leaned over them on the sofa. His own eyes were bright and Patamon sat on his head. Koromon bounced to Meiko without hesitation at all.

"You smell like chocolate," he declared.

Maki's eyes flickered towards the smaller girl. Meiko blushed. "Well... you said they'll eat anything."

"If it tastes good," Patamon corrected, floating to sit on her head now. Takeru pouted playfully at them both.

"Hey! Don't steal!" he quipped.

Patamon stuck out his tongue and the three of them laughed.

"Be nice to your seniors, buddy," Daigo said, smiling in that placable way that Taichi recognized from his father after a few too many falls from his bike, a few too many mistakes that led him to burst into tears. But it was more lighthearted, more amusement than cajoling and Takeru looked at him imploringly.

"We're just playing."

"Still," Daigo said, taking a mock stern expression. "Meiko-chan is two years older than you, you need to show her some respect. I can tell these things."

Takeru looked back at Meiko, all big eyes, and delightful interest. "Really?!"

Meiko bobbed her head and Taichi watched her shoulders ease a fraction lower. "I-I'm in fourth grade..."

"Nii-chan's in fifth," Takeru declared. "What's fourth grade like? He won't tell me anything."

"Nii-chan says it's boring," Hikari supplied.

All the children glanced at him, and even Daigo quirked an eyebrow. Despite the sober topics running through his head, Taichi found himself flushing with embarrassment.

"School isn't great for me," he said, trying not to puff out his cheeks and pout. That was exactly what Hikari wanted him to do. "Too much time, sitting still, too much energy to burn, you know?"

"Feels that way now," Daigo said, a grin on his face. "It gets easier when you find outlets. Hime-chan was a wreck until we took her to Akihabara for a-" She smacked him lightly on the arm and he recoiled like he'd lost the entire arm entirely. "How dare you?!" he said with mock affront, turning on to her. "It's the truth!"

"And they did not need to hear it," she replied, grinning in a way that made her amber eyes glow with something that Taichi remembered when he looked at old photos of his newlywed parents. It straddled that ugly line between _gross as heck_ and sickeningly sweet. He knew where it was.

And to keep it far away, he decided to ask, "What stuff would you get in Akihabara? That's all computers and anime stuff."

"Mostly computers," Maki corrected, watching as the three younger children began tossing Koromon like a mouthy bouncy ball. He seemed to love it, judging by the way his ears zagged about. It took that last lingering shadow out of Takeru and Hikari's eyes too, so Taichi didn't complain about his partner's new manhandled state. "I didn't really enjoy technology until I had to force myself to learn it."

That seemed to be all that she would say on the matter, so Taichi didn't ask anymore. Instead, he asked what was churning in his head, in his throat, in his mother's mind.

"Do you think my sister's a chosen too?"

Hikari looked at him, hope stuttering and dying out of her eyes. Did she want this? Did she want to risk her life like that? Or was it a fear of leaving him alone, of watching him go away and having to hope he'd come back again. Thinking of that almost made him sick...

But so did imagining her body squeezed by Devimon, or Vamdemon throwing her around like he did his own people...

"We think so," Daigo said quietly. "And we think she could be the one he's looking for."

Taichi heard his mother drop the dish she was using and each piece shattering on the floor in a bloody mess.

"Why?!" she demanded, and suddenly Taichi felt five years old again and cheek burning from his mother miserable fear. "Why either of them?! She's sick! Taichi was supposed to go to summer camp! Not be a hero!"

Daigo cringed backward. The younger children looked up from their game. "Yagami-san-"

"You would have to ask Homeostasis," Maki replied in a bland voice, interrupting the slightly taller male. "But even if they were not asked to be doing so, they would be aware of it. They would have been aware of it even while you were not. She has hidden it from you for the sake of keeping the peace. She would have been in danger inevitably. He would have seen people he knows go missing, act strangely."

"You're not answering my question." His mother's lips were in an unforgiving line.

Maki only shrugged her slender shoulders. "That would be because I gave you the answer. You can cry foul and be angry. As a parent, you should. They may forget to do it once they choose after all and you should feel that anger and channel it into changing the system, to reminding the world that adults have dreams and aspirations of their own worthy of being called upon." She shook her head. "At any rate, it won't change the current situation. That digimon has already seen your son. She'd be in danger by association. Which is why we're here." She glanced at Meiko, who was, for reasons Taichi could only begin to fathom, shielding the two smaller children behind her and the Digimon. It was almost comical.

Daigo coughed and took up the speech. "That is why Meiko-chan's parents have volunteered to let Meiko stay over here and bring Hikari-chan to theirs."

"What?" Taichi said before his mother could. "You're... where is she going?"

"Tottori!" Meiko replied, forcing a cheerful voice. "Out in the mountains and forests!"

"We have a possible likelihood of not having to go that far," Maki corrected. "But the Digimon are already here in the human world. They are already invading. So we need to do the same. Tomorrow morning, we'll be separating them. Tokyo is a big city, so by the time they realize that they need to look elsewhere, she will be far away and safe."

"We'll be removing Meiko-chan the day after, once one of the enemies catches a glimpse of her with a Digivice in hand," Daigo added. "Following that, we'll figure out what his plan is, and the significance of being the eighth child, and guide you all into a plan that will take care of him."

Taichi wanted to be angry, because, heck, they had taken care of themselves so far without any help. At the same time, a plan, an actual idea of what to do, an actual prayer of some kind, just made the tension in his heart slow just a little. Even if it didn't work, it didn't matter. At least they had tried.

"Do you think it'll work?"

Daigo smiled, and it was intensely, achingly familiar to the one he wore himself all of the time. "We won't know until we try."

"He says that a lot," Maki supplied.

Taichi smiled a little more and then turned to help his mother. Seeing her stony face, the tears at the corners of her eyes, he sighed.

This was going to be a long, long night.

* * *

Of course, it had not gone to plan. The idea had fallen to pieces the second Meiko had touched the Digivice hoarded by the Yagami cat and watched it warm over her palm. And Tailmon, desperate, lonely Tailmon, had answered the encouragement of an optimistic, kindhearted girl.

And the kindhearted girl had fought, while the child of light fled. The crest had not glowed, not even once. Instead, Yagami Hikari, sitting in one of many train cars, had thrown up inside a wastebasket and cried, cried for something she did not understand but something she knew she wanted very much, more than she could put into words. Maki had, without hesitation, led her to the nearest bathroom and let her do what needed to be done, waiting outside of the stall with the patience granted to the old.

Himekawa Maki was not suited to this, but it was the most necessary. She would not be fooled again. Even without a Digimon, she could, and would protect these children. She had to try at least.

"Himekawa-san?" Little Hikari's timid voice, hoarse from sickness, still managed a weak echo in the bathroom.

"Mm?"

"Where's your Digimon?"

Maki, arms crossed, was very lucky the girl could not see her face. "Dead. He... he died at the end of our journey." And oh how it burned still, heavy and thick at the bottom of her stomach. "He protected us, saved us."

"I'm sorry." She meant it in the way all kids meant it when they were sorry, because what else could they do but feel bad? Even if it did nothing. "You must have loved him."

"You'll understand the feeling when you have your own." Idly, Maki mused that was the same thing her father had insisted to her about having children.

"If I get one." Hikari's young voice was tired. "They'll make me wait. I'm needed for something else. And then I'll just keep waiting. I'll be in danger and just have to wait." The girl stepped out of the stall and Maki felt her forehead. The fever had broken, thank all the small miracles.

"Did she tell you that? The goddess?"

Hikari shook her head, trailing after her in the pastel bright clothes, fingers still clenched in her yellow shirt. "No... I just think I should wait. It will make everyone happier if I'm not in the way."

Maki turned this over. "Then shall I teach you how to not be in the way?" At the look on the girl's face, Maki elaborated. "I will teach you how I survived. And how to do more. Then, when you have the choice in front of you, you will be prepared."

Hikari smiled a tremulous little grin. It was enough.

As Maki drove, however, the sky overhead began to darken and split. Mountains and the brightly lit sky opened up upside down overhead. Maki gave it a glance and winced. Hikari did not look away.

"Onii-chan will be okay," she said softly, firmly. "They'll all be okay."

If a pink light burned on her chest, Maki did not point it out. She only nodded along. She remembered having that optimism, that firm of a light glowing in her own heart.

She wondered if she still did if she still could. Would that be what made Bakumon happy, what caused him to return to her?

She had to hope because something in her said her plans would fall.

Maki opened her eyes to the night sky cut with many claws... or knives the size of a world itself, to the whispers outside of the train, of people whispering of monsters most likely. Hikari slept on the seat, baby blue blanket stolen from under the seat. Her hands were curled around the soft fabric like they were lifelines rather than a source of body heat.

Hikari opened her eyes, little red fires in the dark. "Himekawa-san?" she whispered.

Maki lifted herself up, tested the floor. "The train has stopped."

Hikari sat up, taking her bag from where it had settled as a pillow moments before. "Why?"

"I'm not sure." Maki, in fact, had a guess, and it had to do with the world in the sky. "But we can't stay and find out."

Hikari obediently went to her, letting her smaller, weaker body be picked up and placed on her back. "Hold tight to our bags," she ordered and Hikari obeyed without question.

It was so painfully nostalgic.

* * *

"This has gotten painfully out of hand."

"I'd apologize if it could be controlled." Maki kept one eye on the girl and the other eye on the train tracks. This truly depended on how fast they could be. They had to rely on a rural train arriving at this dirt-encrusted station if someone didn't arrive with a car soon. Hikari sat placidly on the bench, chewing on a small store sandwich. "Should we expect someone?"

"Someone is on their way," her boss said, agreeably enough. "Nishijima says things have also gotten off kilter but are still proceeding positively. At least that was what he said before the fog rolled in."

"There's a fog?"

Professor Mochizuki likely nodded, but she couldn't see. "The entire area of Odaiba has been cut off by a thick fog. Our readings are calling it a heavy disruption of Digital Waves."

"And it disrupts our phone connection?" _How powerful could this Vamdemon be?_ Or perhaps it was the human world that was causing it. Humans had an overpowered perception of the supernatural than they actually believed in. It led to disproportionate imbalances and ideas. Hell, that could make the mere perfect level nigh-immortal. Wonderful.

"It's disrupting everything as a matter of fact. It's a minor effect compared to the state of the sky right now, but well... you've already seen that for yourself, haven't you?"

"I'm afraid so."

"My wife should be there shortly. Don't worry. For now, your job is to keep that girl safe. You said so yourself."

Professor Mochizuki hung up without a goodbye and Maki grimaced. She could argue he was being optimistic. She could also say he was being callous. After all, his own daughter was in danger. But then, what could he do? He had not been chosen. He was not special.

Not anymore, anyway.

Hikari made a sound and hopped off the bench, bag swinging on her arm as she looked over down the dirt track. Maki followed her gaze and her eyes went wide.

Someone was walking on the rail. They hummed as they walked, a song whose words clanged in Maki's ear at the very syllables. The only thing that kept her from sliding to the ground was the way Hikari was also stock still and dangerously close to falling over.

The child continued to walk, electricity dancing at their bare feet. Then they stopped and looked up with kaleidoscope eyes.

"You've walked so far," they said, their features blurring and indistinct and yet somehow nostalgic and intimate. "Will you walk further? Will you not?" The song still played in their voice.

"You're not supposed to be here," Maki managed to say. "You're not supposed to be corporeal, Homeostasis."

They laughed, soft and fond and knowing. "We are only in response to what is." They turned to Hikari. "Child of Light, Child of Infinity, one of two. Once more, you have altered fate. More, you will alter fate if you so choose." Homeostasis dipped their head. "For now you must continue to dream and what you dream may become real."

They held out their hand and perhaps in a trance, Hikari held out both of hers. A ball of light floated into her hands, growing to the size of what anyone else would consider a chicken egg.

"The future lies within the choices of the living," Homeostasis said, beginning to walk on. "And those who have yet to live, and those who are wishing to live with all of their might." They began to sing again as they walked away and for a moment, Maki caught a glimpse of purple.

Then there was nothing at all and the night seemed somehow darker than before, with the grey egg sitting in the small girl's hands. Hikari struggled to hold it, to lift it evenly in her arms.

Maki only sat back on the bench and watched. She would not break that first moment between human and Digimon. After all, once it was lost, no one could get it back.

She knew that all too well.

* * *

 ** _A/N:_ **I'll stop writing about Hikari eventually. Not for a while, but eventually. For now, this is for my buddy Rypht, who loves my Hikari AUs. I hope you like this one!

Challenges: A Trick or Treat Adventure, Mega Prompts Writing Prompt 30, Christmas Advent day 25, AU Diversity Boot Camp prompt - blind, gameverse boot cmap prompt move, season rewrite boot camp prompt overrated, interseason boot camp prompt - industry


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